Unless you’ve been wandering around with your fingers fimly planted in your ears for the past few months, we’re confident that Ray Foxx is a name you’ve been hearing with increasing frequency in 2011.

Tinkering with musical production with increasing ferocity and success for the majority of his life, Ray has recently been brought to the forefront of the collective consciousness with a track that has unanimously united the most influential of dance music tastemakers, and one that we are extremely excited to be involved with.

The original dropped on Defected back in June with heavy support from Annie Mac, Zane Lowe and Trevor Nelson to name just a few. Now, the remix package has arrived, with superb reinterpretations from Chocolate Puma and Guti heading in completely different but equally satisfying directions.

So with this in mind, we thought it was about time we has a little chat with the track’s creator. Check out this extended interview in which we will discover – amongst other things – his inspirations, production techniques, and his preferred method for world domination…

Who is ‘The Trumpeter’ and why is he so happy?

'The Trumpeter' is a character that I created to help everyone have a good time during the summer. That's pretty much it in a nutshell! Sometimes something just connects with us and we do not need to know why. He can be whoever we want him to be.




Where is Ray Foxx heading? Do you have any dream collaborations, or artists you’d particularly like to be able to work with or remix?

I want to continue on the path that I've started. I'm going to give you some more of my music and begin to translate it into a live show. Beyond that I'd love to explore as many ways of making music as I can, and I'd love to score a film! Collaborations? Right now it's all about Cee-Lo! There are many others, both in music and beyond it, but if I list names we will be here all day and I will definitely miss someone out! I'm open to exploring any possibilities that come along that I feel could work.

You’ve cut your teeth to a razor-sharp level across a number of different genres… is there a particular style of music that you’re especially attuned to?

I just like music. I find it hard to have an aversion so any particular genre or style of music. There are some that I rarely listen to or in which I fail to find music in that inspires or excites me, but I always have an open mind.

What does inspire you?

I'm all about good concepts and ideas, whether they come from music, films, life, science, philosophy, relationships, past, present, future etc…my influences come from who I am and from the experiences I have. Music doesn't just need to be spawned from music. I see music as a conversation or debate, rather than a pulpit or a podium. For me it's video conference call as opposed to a TV. I experience the way things are, watch and listen to how people live - what they think, feel and do - and use the parts of my reaction that I hope will fit them in my creations.

I grew up on acoustic music - it all started with the guitar for me. I liked Oasis, was a Guns n Roses fan and loved Jimi Hendrix. I remember watching Michael Jackson as a child and being obsessed! That's where my view on live performances were developed. But when I heard Outkast, Cee-Lo and their production, a lot changed for me. They were so good and yet so underrated and relatively unknown. From there I got into Timbaland, Dr Dre, Quincy Jones - rediscovering Michael Jackson - and eventually found my way to 'Fat Of The Land' by Prodigy while playing Wipeout 2097 for Playstation. After that it was all over! I had already been making music for a bit, but now there was no going back.


One of you first introductions to music was through the violin… do you still play this or any other instruments on your tracks?

The violin is definitely one of the harder solo instruments, before that I played the recorder at school - which was definitely easier! A less obvious lesson that I learned from the violin was to have faith and stick at something you believe in. I know that may sound a little corny but, trust me, the first time you glide and play with vibrato - as opposed to the months and years of trying not to make the instrument sound like you are torturing a chalk board with a rusty nail - you'll give any instrument or technique a second try!

I haven't picked up my violin in a while, but a lot of what I learned from it I have translated into the way I play other instruments. I picked up the electric guitar after the violin and was immediately mesmerised by Jimi Hendrix. Seriously, the way the guy speaks through his instrument is unbelievable and I carry the lessons I learned through the way he writes and expresses to this day. A tune that I recently finished, currently called 'Ra Ra Ra', has a Moog Voyager lead going through the whole tune, which I played live and unquantized, which is a result of my love of playing the guitar and violin. I'm also massively into percussion and, although I don't really play the drums, I love playing and programming percussive and tuned percussion parts.

But the instrument of choice and ease – let’s be honest – is the keyboard. I'm by no means a trained concert pianist, but like most people who have ever gone near a music application; it dawned upon me pretty quickly that I would be massively limited in being able to translate my thoughts into sound without adequate keyboard skills.

Advancements in computer technology has opened up musical production to people that before would have been excluded from it…do you see this as a positive thing?

I think that the modern day electric guitar is the humble laptop. All you need right now is a basic model, one of the new generation of music creation packages (Ableton Live, Fruity Loops etc), a controller keyboard, audio interface, half decent pair of studio monitors and you’re away. Like the electric guitar, a laptop is so accessible and can be used to create such a wide range of sounds. The current challenge for me, though, is in the way in which a laptop is used as performance tool. I don't think that we are quite there yet. For me it can be easy to fall into the trap of being behind on one on stage and doing loads of creative stuff, playing with buttons and knobs, in the zone, but leaving the audience with no real idea of what you are doing, how it is affecting what they are hearing and quite frankly wondering if you are playing a long track in iTunes and updating Facebook. I think that a lot of faith is asked of an audience when they can't see what you are doing. But on a positive note there are several new advancement in performance technology which offer real solutions to this problem - I think that it is only a matter of time before electronic music starts to compete with live instrumentation in a live performance context.


In terms of my tools of choice, for me it’s all about Ableton Live. That is my creative hub. But I must stress to anyone starting out that it's all about using what is comfortable for you. None of us think alike. But Live for me is the one. It includes most of the modern and many of the cutting edge ideas in creative music production and if you want to perform electronic music, I can't see anything that competes with it. I have a Moog Voyager, Roland Juno 106 and a few other analog and digital synths, which I love putting through pedals and other outboard when I have the time. I have also started using a modular synth system which I'm loving! But everything eventually ends up in Live and gets more life breathed into it. In fact 'The Trumpeter' was made entirely using Ableton Live and almost entirely using it's built in plug-ins.




In terms of ‘The Trumpeter’, why do you think Annie Mac has been such a big supporter of the record… have you beguiled her with your cunning?

A fox can be cunning and can have many tricks - but happily on this occasion Annie played The Trumpeter all of her own accord! Big respect Annie..!!

How does Ray Foxx plan to take over the world?

Haha! One tune at a time!!!!

The Trumpeter Remixes are out now - listen & buy